I have heard a lot of talk about the new spot lock features on trolling motors these days and it is a substantial investment so when I went that route I did a lot of research and found conflicting opinions. I just wanted to share my experience since I have owned both. I bought a 24 volt terrova about a year and a half ago. This was the updated model they had made improvements to. That thing held great! I was extremely impressed with its performance even in rough weather or strong currents. I recently sold that boat and the one I bought has a 24 volt motorguide saltwater version xi5 with pinpoint gps. I had it out yesterday and it performed really well. I did not notice any difference in the performance between it and the terrova. However, yesterday was very low winds so I did not get to really see what it could do. I will update this once I get it out in some chop in case anyone is in the market and it doing research.

Quick update on this. Had the boat out on Sunday and the spot lock on the MotorGuide worked great 99 percent of the time, however I did experience the problem once when it went crazy on me. I have read about it in other reviews. It was making bigger and bigger corrections till it tried to spin me in a complete circle. There was current in the river but no real wind. It was not even on the initial anchor setting which I could have understood. This was after it had been in spot lock for about 10 minutes. I hate that now i can't trust the thing like I could trust my Minn Kota out at the jetties. If the big motor was turned off and it flipped out like this, it would be no bueno. Hope this is not a pattern.

I was out today with my Xi5 and 2 other boats with Minn Kota within 10 feet from each other, and we were all pretty consistent. It was a windy day, which helps both motors stay on spot. I think they're all about the same.
Tim

The build quality on motorguide seems to be subpar to minn kota.

The number of defective / not pairing wireless foot pedals I see is nuts.

Keep updating this, as I'm currently in the market. Like you stated I'm reading mixed reviews about both products. I really want a spoptlock as I have to use marker buoys and keep my foot on the peddle all day long, or drop an anchor. I would like to know how well these integrate with Lowrance HDS gen 3 if you happen to own one. I have a few lakes I fish with a few spots that are not far. It would be fun to just tap go to location and fish my way over there slowly.

Only the MotorGuides will integrate with Lowrance. MInnKota with Hummingbird

Is that true even with adapters?

Yes

I have my xi5 networked with HDS Gen3. As ETxRT stated above, they are not universal, and will only talk to their buddy (motorguide and Lowrance, MinnKota and Humminbird).

I love my network. I can tell it to follow a path that I've created or drove, and it goes. Or go to a waypoint and when it gets there, it spotlocks.
Tim

I'm also in the market right now. Bought a new boat that came with a Simrad Go7 (Lowrance) that I updated the transducer to a 3n1 for side and down scan. I'll be upgrading to a larger screen eventually and would like to connect TM to it all for the capabilities talked about above. In researching, Minn Kota folks are Minn Kota loyal and Motorguide folks are Motorguide loyal it seems. Sounds like it boils down to more about what brand electronics you want to run more than the TM capabilities. They are so advanced now days, they are pretty much the same.

Better tell that to my Lowrance and MinnKota Terrova. They are getting along just fine.

Are you just talking about using the built in transducer? Or are you actually controlling the trolling motor from the graph?

Wasn't talking about the models with built in universal transducers. Was referring to integrating your graphs to where you can control the tm with them